20ga FLINTLOCK patterns and success..... TSS

[Matt / PA]

A little mix of OLD school and new school that I thought you guys might find interesting.
I've been hunting with a flintlock Fowler for turkeys for years but only just started messing with TSS in it over the last 3.
It's been deadly so far, and I've tweaked the load a bit more this year.

The barrel on my Fowler is a 38" Colerain 20ga "turkey" barrel.
It's is a .620 bore diameter that tapers to a choked diameter of .580

It's impossible to load with conventional modern plastic wads and bore protectors because of the constriction so I have been experimenting with #9s buffered with Jiffy corn muffin mix on the bare bore.
For the first shot of the day on a good clean dry bore it will throw 350+ in 10" at 30yds everytime.....giving me 250ish +/- in 10" at 40yds
(I yanked the first 30yd in the picture a bit)
On a dirty quickly swabbed bore it will drop down closer to 300.
(Second picture right down the pipe)

Believe it or not it's not tearing up the bore like you would immediately think. The stuff is so small, polished, and round, it is flowing nicely through the tapered section.
Just some light streaking that polishes right out after a range session.
I figure for the 1-2 shots I'm gonna take per year now that it's permanently patterned, I couldn't possibly shoot the barrel out in the rest of my lifetime. I'm just gonna bop turkeys and not worry about it one bit!

Anyway just wanted to show you guys a little something different , and what a good rocklock can do. I'm really not giving much of anything up against the modern shotshell loads.
It's a heck of a lot of fun too!

30yds clean

30yds dirty

40yds clean

[MAK]

Very nice gun and turkey.

[GLS]

Fred Flintstone would be proud. Nice looking gun, bird and patterns. Gil

[Hognutz]

Crazy good patterns! That dog will hunt, for sure! Great picture.
Good luck and happy hunting with your smoke pole!

[spider316]

That's is amazing, truly taking it to the next level, congrats !

[coconut]

Any idea how fast the shot is traveling out of the barrel?

[howl]

That's good info on lack of bore damage.

[RapscallionVermilion]

Very nice. Tell us more about your Fowler.

[Matt / PA]

Very nice. Tell us more about your Fowler.

It's an English styled colonial Fowler.....built by Ken Moors in NC.
Colerain 38" turkey barrel, Chambers Early Ketland lock, and a plank of modestly figured curly maple. Weighs in at just a touch over 7lbs and handles like a light pump action shotgun!
Shooting 100grs of Swiss 2f real black powder, primed w Swiss 4f black.
I attached a few pics of the details that I had on my computer that the builder sent while he was making the gun.....he does great work and is a terrific engraver.

[RapscallionVermilion]

Thanks. Very nice workmanship on that gun. I really like the finish work on the wood to give it a natural patina.

[crow]

Very nice looking smoothbore, patterns and pics

and nice POI, is your POI more consistent than it is in a modern gun with a plastic wad?
does a nitro card and fiber wad fir thru his choke or are you using felt wads for over the powder?

[Matt / PA]

Very nice looking smoothbore, patterns and pics

and nice POI, is your POI more consistent than it is in a modern gun with a plastic wad?
does a nitro card and fiber wad fir thru his choke or are you using felt wads for over the powder?

POI is basically identical shot to shot..... Even from powder to powder. Was shooting Goex last year and Swiss this year.
I keep the components behind the shot column very light.
Don't want a heavy fiber wad or something blowing up into the pattern.
So I just use a thin overshot card on top of two 1/8" 20ga wool wads that only weigh about 1.8grs each. These provide the cushion and a little more gas seal.
They just spin right off the back of the pattern as soon as it leaves the bore.
Very simple load but it chucks a serious pattern!
Can't get rigid thicker nitro wads into the bore but the thin ones or chopped down larger ones can squeak through.
Whatever you use in these barrels you just have to be concious of making sure each card flattens out and seals as it gets through the choked section.

[coconut]

Do you have any idea about the feet per second the shot is traveling?

[crow]

Very nice looking smoothbore, patterns and pics

and nice POI, is your POI more consistent than it is in a modern gun with a plastic wad?
does a nitro card and fiber wad fir thru his choke or are you using felt wads for over the powder?

POI is basically identical shot to shot..... Even from powder to powder. Was shooting Goex last year and Swiss this year.
I keep the components behind the shot column very light.
Don't want a heavy fiber wad or something blowing up into the pattern.
So I just use a thin overshot card on top of two 1/8" 20ga wool wads that only weigh about 1.8grs each. These provide the cushion and a little more gas seal.
They just spin right off the back of the pattern as soon as it leaves the bore.
Very simple load but it chucks a serious pattern!
Can't get rigid thicker nitro wads into the bore but the thin ones or chopped down larger ones can squeak through.
Whatever you use in these barrels you just have to be concious of making sure each card flattens out and seals as it gets through the choked section.

I shot a lot of patterns out of an older Curley Gostromski 20 ga open choke.
the best tightest center core patterns were with 2 oxyoke 20 ga. wool felts over the powder and grey wasp nest paper over the shot, 1 wool felt over the shot in place of the wasp nest was a very close second.

Do you shoot TSS with plastic wads in a modern gun to be able to tell if your getting a more consistent POI with the ML and felt wads compared to POI in the modern gun with plastic wads?

[Matt / PA]

Do you have any idea about the feet per second the shot is traveling?

I've never chronod it but trying to extrapolate from published loads I've seen it's probably around 1000fps maybe a touch better.
The shot load is 710grs and the 100grs of Swiss is pretty hot. Probably 15% hotter than an equivalent volume of Goex powder.
And the 38" barrel gives it time to build up additional velocity.
It's a seriously stout load for a 20ga smoothbore but the barrel has a nice thick breech and no real danger blowing anything.
It's got some snap and flattened the last bird at 33yds with the old powder load.
Gonna be a bit hotter now

[coconut]

All it’s missing is a red dot scope.

[crow]

Have not chronographed a smoothbore load, but for a comparison,

45grains of Swiss 3f equaled 55 grains of Goex 3f in a .40 (.395 RB) for velocity and same POI
95gr of Swiss 2f equaled 110gr of Goex 2f in a .54 (.535 RB) for velocity and POI.

your load of 100grs of 2f Swiss is probably close to 115grs of Goex 2f for velocity

Sam Fadala did a lot of velocity testing with goex and Lyman also has some loads listed

[huntin]

I admire you for just being able to accurately shoot a flintlock. Beautiful gun!

[Matt / PA]

I admire you for just being able to accurately shoot a flintlock. Beautiful gun!

Thanks! Got a little wiggle room with the turkey gun

You should see some of my RIFLES shoot.
This is a 5 shot group from my .58 longrifle at 50yds

Target - Copy.jpg (59.31 KiB) Viewed 8356 times

[Matt / PA]

Dropped back to 40 tonight to verify what I Thought it was going to do......it didn't disappoint.

I think that will work for a 20ga flintlock huh?

[Hognutz]

That’s off the charts, insane!

[crow]

Sweet 10" pattern

it's interesting the .7 rule is very close even without plastic wads

[huntin]

I admire you for just being able to accurately shoot a flintlock. Beautiful gun!

Thanks! Got a little wiggle room with the turkey gun

You should see some of my RIFLES shoot.
This is a 5 shot group from my .58 longrifle at 50yds

Target - Copy.jpg
Martin1.jpeg
Martin2.jpeg

Wow, what a group! That is one beautiful rifle!

[Matt / PA]

Worked again this morning!....doubled up here in PA.
My wife with my 20ga TSS handloads in her little Mossberg, and me with the Flintlock.
Great morning!

[Hognutz]

Nice!! Congrats!! Great picture!